What is Grand Champagne?!
What is Grand Champagne?
What is the definition of a Grand Champagne? Is Grand Champagne mixed with wine from different vintages vs Vintage champagne of a specific year?
Answers:
Grand Champagne has nothing to do with Champagne, the sparkling wine.
It is an area where grapes are grown from which Cognac is made. It is the center most, best region for growing the Ugni Blanc grape that makes the finest brandy on the planet.
Other regions include: Petite Champagne, Borderies, Fins Bois, Bon Bois and Bois Orinaires.
aged champagne :)
Champagne; champagne
[sham-PAYN (Fr. shahm-PAH-nyuh)]
1. Even though effervescent wines abound throughout the world, true champagne comes only from France's northernmost wine-growing area, the Champagne region, just 90 miles northeast of Paris. This renowned region consists of four main growing areas-Montagne de Reims, C?tes des Blancs, Vallée de la Marne, and the Aube-and a fifth area that's evolving, C?te de Sézanne. Because it's so far north, Champagne's cool weather creates a difficult growing environment for grapes. The main grape varieties-red PINOT NOIR and MEUNIER (Pinot Meunier) and white CHARDONNAY-all require warmer weather for optimum development. Grapes that don't fully ripen tend to have high acidity and less-developed flavors, which just happens to be the perfect formula for SPARKLING WINES. The chalky soil in this region further contributes its magic to create just the right flavor composition in these grape varieties. In the Champagne region, the villages and their associated vineyards are classified (from 80 to 100 percent) according to the quality of the grapes produced. Of the approximately 270 villages, only 17 have obtained GRAND CRU ratings of 100 percent. The next level, called PREMIER CRU, consists of villages with ratings from 90 to 99 percent. The remaining villages have ratings of between 80 to 89 percent. Most of the better-known champagne houses buy grapes to supplement their own vineyards, and this precentage rating system helps set the prices growers receive. Although Dom Pérignon, the seventeenth-century cellarmaster of the Abbey of Hautvillers, didn't invent sparkling wines, he is acknowledged for greatly improving the process. He's credited for his work in preventing champagne bottles and corks from exploding by using thicker bottles and tying the corks down with string. Even then, it's said that the venerable monk lost half his champagne through bursting bottles. Dom Perignon is also celebrated for developing the art of blending wines to create champagnes with superior flavor. Today, some champagne makers mix as many as thirty to forty or more different base wines to create the blend, or CUVéE. Most major champagne houses strive for a cuvée that's consistent from year to year. Good champagne is expensive not only because it's made with premium grapes, but also because it's made by the MéTHODE CHAMPENOISE. This traditional technique requires a second fermentation in the bottle, as well as some 100 hand operations (some of which are mechanized today). Vintage champagnes are made from the best grapes of the harvest in years when the chef de cave of an individual champagne house feels the grapes are better than average. Wines from the declared year must comprise at least 80 percent of the cuvée for vintage champagnes, with the balance coming from reserve wines from prior years. Vintage champagnes must be aged for 3 years prior to their release. Non-vintage champagnes, which make up 75 to 80 percent of those produced, are blends of 2 or more years. They're usually made in a definitive house style, which is maintained by meticulous cuvée blending. ROSé champagnes are generally made by adding a small amount of red still wine to the cuvée, although some producers extract color by MACERATING the juice with red grape skins. These sparkling wines are usually full-flavored and full-bodied (see BODY) and have an intriguing salmon-pink color. The pale pink, full-flavored BLANC DE NOIRS CHAMPAGNES are made entirely from the red Pinot Noir and/or Meunier grapes. BLANC DE BLANCS champanges, which are usually more delicate and the lightest in color, are made entirely from Chardonnay grapes. CRéMANT champagnes, which are made with only slightly more than half the pressure of standard sparkling wines, have a creamier mouth-feel. Champagne can be LIGHT and FRESH, TOASTY to YEASTY, and DRY to sweet. A champagne's BOUQUET and flavor gain complexity through a process called AUTOLYSIS, whereby the wine ages with the yeast cells in the bottle (sometimes for up to 10 years) before being DISGORGED. A sugar-wine mixture, called a DOSAGE, added just before final corking, determines how sweet a champagne will be. The label indicates the level of sweetness: BRUT (bone dry to almost dry-less than 1.5 percent sugar); EXTRA SEC or extra dry (slightly sweeter-1.2 to 2 percent sugar); sec (medium sweet-1.7 to 3.5 percent sugar); demi-sec (sweet-3.3 to 5 percent sugar); and DOUX (very sweet-over 5 percent sugar). The last two are considered DESSERT WINES. Grande Marque is a French term for "great brand" and is used unofficially to refer to the best champagne houses. An organization called the Syndicat des Grandes Marques has twenty-four members and most of the better-known firms belong, including: Ayala, Billecart-Salmon, j. bollinger, Canard-Duchêne, Deutz, Charles Heidsieck, Heidsieck Monopole, Henriot, krug, Lanson, laurent perrier, Mercier, mo?t & CHANDON, MUMM, PERRIER-JOU?T, JOSEPH PERRIER, PIPER HEIDSIECK, POL ROGER, Pommery and Greno, louis roederer, RUINART, Salon, taittinger, and VEUVE CLICQUOT-PONSARDIN. Some of these Grandes Marques produce a premium brand-an expensive, high-end sparkling wine-variously known as cuvée de prestige or cuvée spéciale. Moet & Chandon was the first to produce such a wine with their Dom Perignon bottling. Today there are numerous offerings including Diamant Bleu from Heidsieck & Co., Comtes de Champagne from Taittinger, Grand Siècle from Laurent-Perrier, Cristal from Louis Roederer, Grand Cuvée from Krug, and Belle Epoque from Perrier-Jou?t. STILL WINES are also made in the Champagne region. The Coteaux Champenois AC covers red, white, and rosé still wines made from the three primary champagne grapes-Pinot Noir, Meunier, and Chardonnay. These wines don't have a great reputation primarily because the grapes used aren't generally fully ripe. The Rosé des Riceys AC covers Pinot Noir-based rosé still wines made around Les Riceys in the Aube. Though hard to find and relatively expensive, these wines are more full-flavored because the Aube, which is warmer than other parts of the Champagne region, produces riper grapes. 2. Champagne is also used as generic name for sparkling wines made in some areas outside of France. Most countries bow to French tradition by not using the word champagne on their labels. Their sparkling wines are called by other names such as SPUMANTE in Italy, SEKT in Germany, and vin mousseux (see MOUSSEUX) in other regions of France or by simply using the term sparkling wine. In the United States and some South American countries, it's legal to use the term champagne for sparkling wine. However, most top-quality, U.S. sparkling-wine producers don't use the term but rather indicate that the wines were made by the French méthode champenoise.
Sauce Mo.. is right